Cat Care

How to Train a Cat

Cats are very independent creatures-they are not as demanding of attention as dogs and they don’t make
large efforts to win your approval. While this makes for a fairly laid-back, easy-going house companion,
it can present training challenges.

While many cats can be trained to do tricks and walk on leashes, the most important training for cats
is to make sure they are performing normal and natural cat behaviors in the proper places at the proper
times. For example, toilet training a cat is critical to living happily with a cat. Cat potty training
is usually fairly easy to do as cats are naturally clean and prefer to bury their waste. The first step
to training kittens is to make sure they know where their litterbox is located. It is often necessary
to confine your kitten to a room with water, food and a clean litterbox for a short time until he or she
is successfully using the litterbox every time. Cat toilet training usually happens very quickly.

Contact us if your kitten is not using the litterbox as there may be a medical or behavioral issue we
can help with.

Another good example of important cat training is proper scratching behavior. Scratching is a normal
cat behavior but it must be done on an appropriate scratching post so as to not destroy the household
furniture. When training a cat to scratch in the right place, you must provide adequate scratching posts
and then praise him when he uses the post and offer only minor corrections (not punishments) when he is
caught in the act of scratching elsewhere. The most successful way to train a cat is by providing adequate
environmental stimulation and then using positive reinforcement techniques. There are many tips for training
cats to instill good manners and avoid bad behaviors which may lead to problems with aggression or inappropriate elimination.

Specialty Care

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